New to us Car

I was wanting to trade in my van.  There's been lots of little problems with it lately.  One thing Mr. R and I have come to realize is that since neither of us knows much about cars, we like the peace of mind we have from having newer cars shouldn't require many repairs and are under warranty if anything does need done. My father-in-law is a car sales man so when we decide it's time to buy a car we just let him know and he'll keep an eye out for a nice trade in or good lease deal.

So the call came in on Monday that his dad had a car he thought would work for us.  It's a 2014 Chevy Captiva with only 22,000 miles on it.  I really like it.  It's fun to drive and comfortable.  We definitely don't have as much space as the van but the trunk is a good size so we'll manage. Plus I got an extended warranty: 5 years bumper to bumper.  My van payment had been $187 per month, my new payment is $232.  I plan to pay more than that though to get it paid off quicker.  Out car insurance did go down $68 per year.  Since I've already paid for the year, I will be getting a refund check for $49.

Mr. R has agreed that buying out his lease is the best plan for his car.  Especially since we'll probably both be driving the new car instead.  We work opposite shifts so it works out really well that when he gets home from work, I drive whatever car he had been driving.  That way it's already warmed up and not covered in snow or ice.  If we ever had to really cut our expenses, we could probably make it work just having one car.

Once we buy out Mr. R's lease and I have a better idea of what the payments will be, I'll need to rework our budget and make some changes to our goals for the year.